In many stores, purchases are consummated at a point of sale (“POS”) terminal which includes a card authorization terminal (“CAT”), such as those manufactured by Verifone, Inc., for reading cards such as credit cards and debit cards and generating data relating to a purchase. During a sale, the CAT typically communicates, directly or indirectly, with a credit card issuer's computer that maintains customer financial accounts. The CAT transmits purchase data, such as a customer's credit card account number, a merchant identifier for specifying the merchant selling the purchase, a purchase price and the items included in the purchase. The issuer computer receives this purchase data from the CAT, and determines whether to authorize the purchase. If the purchase is authorized, the issuer computer debits the customer's financial account by the purchase price and stores some or all of the purchase data for subsequent use in generating a billing statement.
The issuer computer thus accumulates information about the customer's purchases. Such information may be used in providing rewards to a customer in return for past purchases with the financial account. For example, in the “U$AVE” program promoted by First Data Corporation, credit card account holders are automatically provided a discount on a present purchase. The discount is based on previous purchases the customer has made, and typically takes the form of a reduced purchase price or a credit on the customer's credit card account. Similarly, the American Express “Express Rewards” program reduces a customer's purchase price if he has made certain types of purchases in the past, and the American Express “Custom Extras” program alerts credit card account holders to savings from particular merchants on their billing statements.
At best, such systems utilize information about customers' purchases to provide rewards for past purchases. Merchants hope that customer anticipation of such rewards may generate future sales. However, there is no guarantee that merchants will enjoy additional business from the customers. In addition, customers may not always remember which types of purchases will eventually yield rewards. Accordingly, the rewards may not provide a strong incentive to make purchases.